Multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS) is a broadcasting service that can be offered via existing GSM and UMTS cellular networks. MBMS enables efficient group-related data distribution services, especially on the radio interface. The basic idea is to use radio broadcast transmissions within geographical areas of high density of group members and to use point to point transmission resources in areas of low user density. In broadcast applications, a content is transmitted to a plurality of users in a certain area, whereas in a multicast application the content is only transmitted to some predetermined users. An advantage of MBMS can be seen in the fact that the transmission resources in the core network and radio network are shared.
In the market there is an increasing demand for personalizing content, e.g. for personalized advertisements or other content specially directed to a predetermined group of users.
However, with existing solutions personalizing content is complicated as support on the client side is needed. Furthermore, an efficient delivery of personalized content via multicast is not possible with existing solutions.